I’ve said it before, how lazy are we that we cannot even drive cars. I am 100% with vehicles for lane departure warning and even self parking. We have to have responsibility behind the wheel. Drive the car yourself.
These articles never seem to talk about a very overlooked benefit of self-driving cars. How much they will one day help people who desperately want to drive, but physically can’t. Examples would be people with seizures, the blind, those with vertigo, the physically handicapped, the elderly. This could be life-changing for them. Sure, you will have lazy and irresponsible people, but those same people are on the road now – texting and using their phones when they shouldn’t be, half asleep, driving impaired from drugs, from alcohol, or just don’t care. When this technology is ready, I’d rather see a computer driving or at least overseeing, after observing how carelessly a lot of human drivers act on the road. And for those who may not have the privilege to drive due to no fault of their own, self-driving cars can’t happen soon enough.
Thank you for bringing this up. While there are a lot of issues to iron out before we get fully autonomous vehicles (10 years maybe?), the benefits for the types of individuals you mentioned is one major reason we should continue to work on the technology. Couple that with your also accurate take that — ultimately — an autonomous vehicle will be better than a texter-and-driver or a drunk or drugged driver, those standing in the way of the future just because “it’s not ready yet” don’t seem to realize the actual improved safety we’ll see.
(begin joke) To prove my point, how many autonomous vehicles crashed in Demolition Man or Total Recall on their own? :)
I’ve said it before, how lazy are we that we cannot even drive cars. I am 100% with vehicles for lane departure warning and even self parking. We have to have responsibility behind the wheel. Drive the car yourself.
Not going to happen. If an app can’t count votes in a small caucus, it will be of no help on cars.
These articles never seem to talk about a very overlooked benefit of self-driving cars. How much they will one day help people who desperately want to drive, but physically can’t. Examples would be people with seizures, the blind, those with vertigo, the physically handicapped, the elderly. This could be life-changing for them. Sure, you will have lazy and irresponsible people, but those same people are on the road now – texting and using their phones when they shouldn’t be, half asleep, driving impaired from drugs, from alcohol, or just don’t care. When this technology is ready, I’d rather see a computer driving or at least overseeing, after observing how carelessly a lot of human drivers act on the road. And for those who may not have the privilege to drive due to no fault of their own, self-driving cars can’t happen soon enough.
Thank you for bringing this up. While there are a lot of issues to iron out before we get fully autonomous vehicles (10 years maybe?), the benefits for the types of individuals you mentioned is one major reason we should continue to work on the technology. Couple that with your also accurate take that — ultimately — an autonomous vehicle will be better than a texter-and-driver or a drunk or drugged driver, those standing in the way of the future just because “it’s not ready yet” don’t seem to realize the actual improved safety we’ll see.
(begin joke) To prove my point, how many autonomous vehicles crashed in Demolition Man or Total Recall on their own? :)